Kim’s injury could open door for Mao at Sochi Games

Oddly speculative article. I thought it would have more substance than "I wonder how this injury will affect Mao's chances and how seriously injured is Yuna?"

There's also a factual error. NRW Trophy is in the first week of December, not November.

I don't think Mao is counting on Yuna being injured for Sochi. Besides, she has another skater to worry about--Carolina Kostner. If any one can capitalize on Yuna's injury it would be Carolina, who beat Mao at Worlds despite falling in both the SP and the LP and missing the entire GP (like Yuna).

I also don't think Yuna needs to do the GP to establish herself as the favorite or top contender for the OGM. She already has done that six months ago in Canada. Now I do agree she needs to test her programs at a few competitions before Sochi, but she doesn't need the Grand Prix, anymore than she needed it last season.

Dumb article. Given all the pressure she is under Kim is probably better off not having to skate a full season, something she hasnt done since 2010 anyway. Mao is still the clear underdog to both Kim and Kostner at this point, and Kim is still the clear favorite at this moment. Mao is the one who has to keep attempting her insanely hard program which is virtually impossible to ever skate cleanly, and do just that somehow skate it cleanly, to even have a chance to win over both a very good Kim and very good Kostner.

Oddly speculative article. I thought it would have more substance than "I wonder how this injury will affect Mao's chances and how seriously injured is Yuna?"

There's also a factual error. NRW Trophy is in the first week of December, not November.

I don't think Mao is counting on Yuna being injured for Sochi. Besides, she has another skater to worry about--Carolina Kostner. If any one can capitalize on Yuna's injury it would be Carolina, who beat Mao at Worlds despite falling in both the SP and the LP and missing the entire GP (like Yuna).

I also don't think Yuna needs to do the GP to establish herself as the favorite or top contender for the OGM. She already has done that six months ago in Canada. Now I do agree she needs to test her programs at a few competitions before Sochi, but she doesn't need the Grand Prix, anymore than she needed it last season.

I agree. The article is rather poor and mostly speculation. The GP would have been, at most, an opportunity for Yuna to showcase and test her new programs, but the lack of international exposure (except for NRW) didn't hurt her at last year's Worlds and shouldn't hurt her now (it's not like the judges don't know what she's capable of, after all.)

Blah, stupid article.
Yuna's decision to pull out of the GP is a good one, because it gives her time to really heal her injury - but she's a clever and strong competitior, I'm sure she'll be back at full force at Oly time. And she clearly showed this year that she doesn't need the GP to deliver at the big competitions... additionally, I don't think Mao wants to win based on an injury from Yuna, but based on her own strength. It's true that both Mao and Caro have it easier to get some momentum now that they 'have the GP to themselves', but we saw at worlds how little that counts if they don't deliver.

Another Jack Gallagher article? He's the guy who thought Mao should campaign for the summer Olympics for Tokyo. I've yet to read any articles by him that was factually accurate on figure skating. Also he reported that Yuna was going to 4CC last season (said it was confirmed) but turned out to be untrue.

Yuna didn't need GP last season to crush her competition in London. She doesn't need it to do the same in Sochi. Her #1 priority right now is to be healthy & get her programs ready for Sochi. She couldn't care less about GP. I don't think it'll bother her at all to see Mao win all her GP events, including GPF.